Give this 20 gauge load a try

[megasupermagnum]

For all I know this load, or one very similar has been recommended before. This was in my H&R Tracker II 20 gauge, with a .6265" groove diameter. I tried half a dozen factory sabot slugs, none of them are even acceptable. Remington sluggers shot pretty good, and the best being the 3" version of the Federal Truball at about 3" at 50 yards. Remember that this is a gun with less than precision sights. The rear sight is actually the adjustable rear from Ruger revolvers.

I tried to make the Lee 575-472-M work. I tried every trick in the book, hot glue base, nitro cards, pure lead, hard lead, felt, cork, you name it. I even tried the 578 version. The weirdest thing was that the 575 fits perfect in the BPI trap commander like it was made for it. Yet the trap commander wad produced horrendous groups on the order of 12" at 50 yards. The best was with the Federal 20S1 wad. No matter what I did, it shot about 5" at 50 yards.

Anyway, now to the load. I finally got my ball mold, and it casts about .629". This load is straight out of the Lyman shotgun manual, page 386

Federal 3" hull
Federal 209A
34 gr Bluedot
Fed. 20S1 wad + 1/8" 28 ga nitro card
Lyman 350 grain Sabot slug
fold crimp

1596 fps
10,300 psi

I had originally intended on a lighter load, but I had been loading with Bluedot, and decided to go for it. I used the load as described with a couple changes. I cut the wad petals off, but not flush. This was mainly due to laziness, I just took a scissors, and the petals cut off easy with about 3/16" of the petal left on. I then used a .070" mini nitro card 28 gauge, as that was all I had. You could cut the petals flush and use a 20 gauge NC too. For a filler, I used a 1.6cc scoop of PSB buffer.

I didn't expect too much, but was happy to find 5 shots right at 2.5" at 50 yards. Today I shot 15 more, and while I vary, the accuracy is there. The next step for this gun is to mount a scope on it, then I'll be able to do some fine tuning.

The eye opener was when I shot a few over the chronograph. BTW, the balls cast of COWW were coming out around 355 grains.

1710 FPS with a 44 ES. That's smoking.

[bikerbeans]

What mold are you using?

BB

[dg31872]

I have read somewhere, that the Lyman #575494 works very well in this application.

[megasupermagnum]

What mold are you using?

BB

The JT ball molds .632". It drops about a .629" ball.

[centershot]

MSM, Did you try the Lee .575 RB in an unaltered 20S1! That combo should give a snug enough fit to grip the rifling. If not, put a piece of paper around it to make it fit. In my 12 gauge I ended up about .742" IIRC before the load settled in. I hate trimming wads!

[megasupermagnum]

MSM, Did you try the Lee .575 RB in an unaltered 20S1! That combo should give a snug enough fit to grip the rifling. If not, put a piece of paper around it to make it fit. In my 12 gauge I ended up about .742" IIRC before the load settled in. I hate trimming wads!

No. After a month of dinking around with the 575 improved minie, then a stint with the 578 minie, I've had enough of wad slugs. The size isn't the problem. The 575 cast right at .575", and the 578 I got .579" with COWW. The 575 with 20S1 wad gave me around a .627" OD, which should be great. But it doesn't shoot well. The 578, casting .004" larger, also didn't shoot well. I tried untrimmed petals, trimmed petals, nitro cards, felt wads, lubing, multiple wads, you name it. At some point you just have to realize a gun doesn't like a certain bullet.

And after all that I didn't want to embark on another adventure, so I got a full bore ball. And it turned out great as always. If you don't like the recoil a 355-360 grain ball at 1700+ FPS delivers, I've found they shoot great at pretty much any velocity. My best 12 gauge load is only running 1000 fps.